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Alternative Comics announces ambitious 2001 publication schedule

Gainesville, Florida, March 12, 2001: Alternative Comics, billed as "publishers of cool comic books," announced its publishing schedule for the remainder of 2001. The year's roster of eight comic book and graphic novel titles marks Alternative Comics' most ambitious lineup of print releases in the Florida publisher's eight-year history. "We started with Indy Magazine in 1994," said publisher Jeff Mason about Alternative Comics' flagship Harvey Award nominated magazine dedicated to the coverage of independent and alternative comics, "and now we have eight different titles coming out this year." The current positive market for non-superhero, non-mainstream, comic books is a primary reason for such a high number of new releases, "We are very fortunate that so many great cartoonists are creating comic books today," said Mason, "the market for well-written comic books is presently the best it has been in years and is continually improving with more and more college-aged people reading non-traditional, non-superhero comics."

April 2001 will see the graphic novel release of Grickle from the new comics talent, award-winning Canadian-born animator Graham Annable. May 2001 is the release month for Jen Sorensen's Xeric award-winning Slowpoke: Cafe Pompous book collection of her alternative weekly comic strip. June 2001 will have both the second issue of award-winner James Kochalka's all ages Peanutbutter & Jeremy comic books series and Xeric and Ignatz Award winner Nick Bertozzi's The Masochists graphic novel. July 2001 will see the first of two of Sam Henderson's Magic Whistle comic books being released this year as well as Dean Haspiel's very personal Opposable Thumbs autobiographical book. During Fall and Winter of 2001, Alternative Comics will time the release of books to debut at several comic book conventions, including Josh Neufeld and R. Walker's satirical Titans of Finance, another installment of Jon Lewis' fantastic True Swamp series, and another issue of Sam Henderson's Magic Whistle to debut at the Small Press Expo Bethesda, Maryland in late September.

At 128 pages with a cover price of $14.95, Grickle is truly a chance to dive headfirst into the deep end of Graham Annable's world. Grickle collects two dozen beautiful stories in which devilish comedy and eye-watering art enclose a rich, chocolatey center of sad poetry and bruised but intact innocence. Annable has been creating these stories for his own satisfaction concurrent with his commercial animation work, and it shows in their intimate, conversational tone and wholly personal outlook. The skills honed at his day job are just as evident in the deft, fluid way he puts his stylish figures through their paces - it's like listening to the eloquent solo improvisations of a jazz musician who has sharpened his chops playing every night in the band. Even several panels of an Annable character just sitting still at a table practically glitter with life and cartoon joy. A man is carried safely through the ugly harshness of the world by his own Polaroid-enabled brand of narcissism. The sadistic make-believe of two little boys is no match for the laid-back cruelty of their grandfather. Two buddies go on an ice fishing trip. One finds enlightenment, but the other catches a whole hell of a lot of fish. A factory drone discovers his creative side with the help of the toilet. Vehicular manslaughter turns to be pretty okay as long as there aren't any witnesses. Sound interesting? Wait till you see them come to life in vivid black-and-white! Grickle is a hefty treasure trove of visually arresting, hilarious, wise, and emotionally rereadable cartoon stories.

Graham Annable was classically trained as an animator at Sheridan College in Toronto, graduating in 1992, and has worked as an animator ever since, including work on British children's TV, story boards for Chuck Jones Enterprises, Disney's "A Goofy Movie," and since 1994 an extended string of computer game projects for LucasArts such as Full Throttle, The Dig, Afterlife, Outlaws, and The Curse of Monkey Island. Annable is the Lead Animator for the forthcoming LucasArts video game Star Wars: Obi-Wan. His projects have won numerous animation and graphics awards including the ASIFA Annie Award, animation's highest honor, in 1998 for "Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Interactive Program". Graham currently resides in the Bay Area, California.

"Grickle is breath of fresh air in the indy comic world," says animation legend Colin Brady, currently Animation Director for George Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic, the largest digital production facility in the world, "Sometimes strange, sometimes gross, Grickle always offers a poignant message beneath the deceptively simple artwork."

Jen Sorensen returns with her Xeric Award-winning Slowpoke: Cafe Pompous, a collection of alternative newsweekly strips. Jam-packed with gags, Slowpoke tackles the absurdities of present-day American life with rib-tickling gusto. Uptight Mr. Perkins, jaded Little Gus, and horny Drooly Julie provide a witty commentary on the politics and culture of our times. Find out whether evil scientists succeed in cryogenically freezing Julie's libido. Sorensen was nominated for the 1999 Friends of Lulu Kimberly A. Yale Award for Best New Talent for her first collection of Slowpoke strips.

The second issue of James Kochalka's all ages Peanutbutter & Jeremy finds Peanutbutter working on the Flibbledibble File. Jeremy the sneaky old crow is getting tired of his old run down nest. When he overhears Peanutbutter crying about getting fired he decides to run a scam on the vulnerable little kitty cat. After all he's a clever old crow, and Peanutbutter is just a silly office kitten. Peanutbutter may be gullible but Jeremy's scam is so over the top that it backfires. Watch the feathers and fur fly in the fight of the century. James Kochalka's distinction as a "rock star" has been tempered more and more lately by his acclaim as a cartoonist. Critics and fans have responded like crazy to his ubiquitous and instantly recognizable one-pagers in comics and magazines across the U.S., and to his full length comic books and graphic novels. Kochalka has won and has been nominated for many prestigious awards such as the Ignatz award, the Eisner award, the Firecracker Alternative Books award, and the Harvey award.

The Masochists is a dramatic look at obsession, an examination of isolation, and a eulogy for three people slowly crushing everything good out of their lives. "Passing Out", the first story in The Masochists, delves into the torturous world of adolescent pecking orders in which a boy is forced into an act of self-humiliation. The simultaneous destructive and redemptive quality of music-making in "U.V.Katastrophe" follows the central character on his journey out of an artistic dead-end and into his redemption, through a surreal rock concert. The rhythms of "5/4" are made up of the beats of compulsion self-mutilation and the very short distance between art and obsession. The Masochists, a 128-page squarebound book of three cartoon short stories, is an unflinching look at human behavior and will sit well with those intrigued by the early humanist dramas of Fellini or Kurosawa. Nick Bertozzi lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife. His comics credits include: Comix 2000 (L'Association), Boswash for which he also received both the Xeric Grant Award and the Ignatz Award, several stories for the Big Book series (Paradox Press), and many other cartoon anthologies across the globe.

Opposable Thumbs is Dean Haspiel's new, solo series about a born & bred New Yorker and the trials and tribulations of living in the big bad city which serves as the backdrop for the informed, existential expression in his sociological comics. Taking its lead from the pages of the critically acclaimed two-man anthology Keyhole (with Josh Neufeld), Opposable Thumbs promises to be the new leader in autobiographical storytelling. The first issue is a 48-page collection, culling Dean Haspiel's best semi-autobiographical stories from the pages of Keyhole, Minimum Wage, Non, The Expo Anthology, and Dirty Stories. Subsequent issues of Opposable Thumbs will present fresh and new semi-autobiographical stories.

Dean Haspiel is the author of semi-auto-bio comix and super-psychedelic romances. In the mid-80s, Dino worked as an assistant to Howard Chaykin on American Flagg!, Bill Sienkiewicz on New Mutants and Elektra: Assassin, and Walter Simonson on Thor. In 1987, Dino inaugurated his comics career when he co-created and illustrated The Verdict with writer Martin Powell and went on to draw two DC Comics Bonus Books in Detective Comics and Justice League International. Dean illustrated Sony Pictures Classics' SLC Punk comic and is a regular contributor to Harvey Pekar's American Splendor. Dino's latest Billy Dogma work, Boy in My Pocket, is in stores now.

Sam Henderson has just been nominated for a 2001 Harvey Award in two categories, Special Award for Humor for Magic Whistle, and for Best Anthology for Nickelodeon Magazine published by Nickelodeon. This marks Henderson's third consecutive year nominated in the category of Special Award for Humor for Magic Whistle and the second consecutive year Nickelodeon Magazine has been nominated as Best Anthology. Sam Henderson is the funniest writer in comics, hands down. That would be quite enough, thank you, but he also happens to be a shrewd observer of human nature, media cliches, pretension, and teen movies. Two new issues of Sam's hilarious ongoing Magic Whistle series will be unleashed this year.

Jon Lewis' True Swamp: Underwoods and Overtime was picked as one of the Ten Best Comics of 2000 by Time Magazine. Jon Lewis' annual True Swamp series picks up where his 2000 issue left off in chronicling the life of Lenny, a self-absorbed but charming young frog who, when not evading the beaks, jaws and maws of the swamp's many predators, creates plenty of his own problems with his overactive mind. Luckily, Lenny has his good friend Hale Marmot (the swamp's only inventor) to keep his neuroses from getting the better of him. Then there's Lenny's newest acquaintance, Nikolas: a nicer guy you could never hope to meet, but what the heck kind of animal is he? And is Lenny ever going to find anything resembling a girlfriend? With lushly-rendered artwork, uproarious humor, intricately imagined settings, and striking, inventive page layouts, this new Swamp will envelop the reader even more thoroughly than the old one. Lewis's characters fall outside the conventions of the "funny animal" or "anthropomorphic" comics genres — they look like animals, and do not wear little waistcoats or drive little automobiles. But saddled with the full weight of consciousness and speech, they testify just as much to the Human Condition as to Natural Selection. The reader who falls into the distinctive rhythm of life in the Swamp will find it neither carefree nor idyllic, but will be very reluctant to leave.

Titans of Finance aims for where the action is, delivering America a swift kick in the business. Meet Ron Perelman, the man who made millions while presiding over the Mighty Marvel Comics train wreck. He's just one of the characters in this ground-breaking collection of true tales from the world of money and business. Titans of Finance features the crisp art of Josh Neufeld (co-creator of Keyhole), and the incisive scripts of the mysterious R. Walker. These tales "hit the mark," says Harvey Pekar, and are "a brilliant use of the medium," according to TheStreet.com's James J. Cramer. Over the past five years, Titans has crushed the benchmark S&P 500. You've never seen anything like it.

Josh Neufeld has been drawing comics since he was four years old. With his friend of almost 20 years, Dean Haspiel, Josh co-created Keyhole, where Josh does stories about his travel experiences in Southeast Asia and Central Europe. Keyhole has run for six issues with two different publishers. Josh has contributed artwork to Harvey Pekar's American Splendor (Dark Horse), the SPX anthologies, The Big Book of Urban Legends (DC/Paradox Press), and Duplex Planet Illustrated (Fantagraphics), among others. He resides in Brooklyn and makes a living mixing freelance illustration with web design.

R. Walker writes for Slate.com, and lives in New Orleans.

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Graphics, samples, galleys, and interviews with creators are available on request. For more information or requests, please contact publisher Jeff Mason, c/o Alternative Comics, 503 NW 37th Avenue, Gainesville, FL 32609-2204; Phone: 352.373.6336; E-mail: jmason@gator.net.